Rival clubs urged to pursue a creative player-coach role to lure Collingwood champion Scott Pendlebury

The Agenda Setters host Craig Hutchison has floated a left-field option for clubs to secure Scott Pendlebury as a player-coach in a creative salary cap arrangement.

Pendlebury may have played his last game for Collingwood after suffering a hamstring injury in last Friday night’s loss to Brisbane.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Scott Pendlebury’s coaching transition sparks creative club strategies

He will be out for the next 2-3 weeks, meaning the Pies need to win at least two knockout finals for the 38-year-old to play again.

Pendlebury, who is out of contract, is keen to play on in 2027, though there are different views within the Collingwood setup as to whether he is worthy of a list spot.

Essendon made a play for the left-footer, though it was knocked back, while Gold Coast is understood to have expressed interest in the two-time premiership player joining as a free agent.

Hutchison believes a club could entice Pendlebury as an assistant coach, but on the playing list.

“It’s really clear. The only way a club can afford him as an assistant coach is to pay him to play,” Hutchison said on The Agenda Setters.

“And if you run that lens on it, it’s obvious. Like, it doesn’t matter if he plays four games, six games, eight games, 10 games. You can just use the list as the mechanism to pay him proper, meaningful money to come and be an assistant coach who plays a bit and coaches mostly.

“I think it’s an obvious move for clubs who have arrived at that view and are working it out in real time, and ... money is not insignificant to him. I don’t say disrespectful to his circumstances, but he’s been through a bit.

“If he was an assistant coach, you’re only going to be able to pay him $200-300k in the soft cap, whereas you can pay him $750,000 to play six or eight games.

“And if you’re a lower club, as if you couldn’t get eight or 10 games into him by two years. So I think it’s really interesting and Collingwood are not in a position to do that.

“And he probably doesn’t want to coach there anyway. So there’s industrious clubs around the comp that could create his pathway to senior coaching and fast track it.

“And I think there’s some clubs that are working that out in their model.”